hemicellulose

BeschreibungTwenty to thirty-five percent of wood mass is hemicellulose. Hemicellulose is a heterogeneous group of polysaccharides containing 15–200 pentose and hexose sugars joined by β-(1,4) linkages. The greatest number of these units are xyloses, thus they are also know as xylans. These structures are the first components of wood to undergo thermal decomposition during pyrolysis.